Sunday morning...

Good morning:

The picture here is a nebula, a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Off to Safeway shortly.

For some reason I am sleeping much too long these days. For the past 15 years I used to sleep six to seven hours, some nights even shorter. But these days I am sleeping nine to ten hours a night. I sleep this long except those days when I drink coffee in the afternoon. I do not drink decaffeinated coffee. I like the leaded stuff.

Are you watching the Super Bowl next week? I do not watch football on TV except for my Ducks.

Sleeping too much is preventing me from doing the reading I want to every day.

Have a good weekend.

Steven

Saturdy and it is raining

Good morning:

Strange dream last night. I was the president of a company in Oregon but the CEO walks in and tells everyone we, the management team, are moving the Washington D.C. area to be closer to Congress, whom he likes to lobby. Six of us protested and said we would not move. Later on the CEO is killed and we discover he is not whom he says he was. As the successor leader I cancelled the move. Like I said before, dreams are "fractured fairy tales."

Did laundry yesterday, but only somethings go into the dryer. I like to air-dry my towels and today I am air-drying my robe.

Not much happening here today; I want to go the library later today on my bike so the rain better stop.

The picture here are two pandas in China.

Steve

Made Apple Crisp today...

Hi:

A few months ago we went up the forest to find Nolan's mining claim. This is near his claim.

I made some apple crisp today. I used softer apples, so I cooked them only 10 minutes before putting the topping on the apples. I think I can cook these apples with the topping on it. I had some with my coffee this morning. I am surprised I am turning into a good cook.

A few nights ago I made a tuna casserole. We had it for two nights in a row. I cook noodles then add 3 cans of tuna and two cans of cream of mushroom soup and bake it for 45 minutes.

But then, last week I had french toast for dinner. On the History Channel I watched how they make ready-made waffles and french toast. Mine are much better than ones you buy in the store.

Have a great weekend. Mine will involve cracking walnuts for more than a few hours.

Steve

H here today

Hi again:

This picture is shows a wave that froze on Lake Michigan. Strange picture. The blue part of picture is the frozen wave.

We are editing a part of Raymond Geraths' epic poems. He wrote three epic poems during his long life (he died at age 91). The poems are called Creation, Redemption and Sanctification. We are working on Redemption, a 54 page hand-written poem. I spent over 5 hours a few months ago trying to type it out. I got 20 pages typed during that five-hour period. We are editing 14 pages of this poem to put in the Kindle page as a free item.

Putting it free on the Kindle is a good advertising tactic, to promote our other book of poems of Ray's we have on the Kindle page. The long free poem will go viral on various sites that we do not have access to in our efforts.

When typing part of the poem I had trouble with his handwriting; this is the reason why it took so long to type up just 20 pages of it. I left many blanks in my typing so Nolan is reviewing what I typed, comparing it to the original. We need to make a copy of the original and work from the copy not the original.

We plan to put all three long poems on the Kindle after June 30. Why that date? After that date Amazon will start paying authors 70% of the selling price. Right now, Amazon pays 35%. The 70% figure will be 70% minus 6 cents as a delivery fee.

The weekend is coming...cracking walnuts is in my future for the weekend.

Steven

Wednesday the 27th

Hi:



I spent two hours yesterday cracking walnuts. My dad gave me a big bag of uncracked walnuts.



I have not cracked walnuts since I was 20 years old, the year before I got married. Throughout the higher grade school years and all throughout high school once a year, just after Thanksgiving, my mother would give my brother Ken and me a big bag of walnuts and a big empty peanut butter jar. Our job, with no choice to accept it or not, we would have to crack walnuts until the peanut butter jar was full. It took all evening in front of the TV.



Once I got married I no longer had to crack walnuts. Instead, my mother would bring us, just after Thanksgiving, two big jars of cracked walnuts. One jar was pieces of cracked walnuts. The other jar was perfect halves of walnuts. While cracking walnuts for two hours yesterday I got no perfect halves of walnuts. My ex-wife used the walnuts for her fruitcake. Everyone she gave the fruitcake to each year loved it (but not me...fruitcake is on my popcorn list).



My mother is no longer with us so no more cracked walnuts unless I crack them myself.



I use my walnuts in my cranberry pie. The cracked walnuts I will hide here as they are only for cooking not eating right out of the jar. Too much effort goes into cracking these little buggers.



Before I got this bag of uncracked walnuts I bought cracked walnuts at Safeway and Winco. I have not decided if buying them or cracking them is the easier way of getting them.



Tonight I will continue cracking my walnuts.



The picture is the panda that Washington Zoo had to send back to China. This picture when the panda was quite young.





Steven

Wednesday already....

Hi:

James Fallows map I showed yesterday spawned other maps from readers. The black lines in this map shows 38 states with the name inside of each. Instead of calling Oregon Willamette, this one calls it Cascade. Click on it to see a larger version.

I made brownies today but instead of just plain brownies I put banana pieces into this one. I thought of doing this about 10 minutes in the baking time. So a few did not sink in the brownie mix.

I am into reading science fiction these days. Now I am reading Bitter Angels by C. L. Anderson. I have one more book here of science fiction to read, plus I have The Best Sport Stories of Pat Jordan, newspaper articles by this good writer. Flash Forward was also science fiction with the ending sort of like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I was in the process submitting a poem by Raymond J. Geraths but after six versions of it ready to go, today I googled the name to make sure this poem was not used before by another author. Much to my surprise. it is not a poem, but a song. The name of the song is To You Sweetheart, Aloha. Over 100,000 hits with the song sung by Bing Crosby, Connie Francis, and Andy Williams. So we cannot use this poem as written the late Raymond Geraths. It was typed out so we cannot trust anything he typed out.

Ray wrote 3 epic poems, one 48 pages, one 54 pages and the last 92 pages. They are called Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification. We are going to use about 14 pages of Redemption as a free item on the Kindle page in order to spur more interest in the first book of poems we published on the Kindle page.

Have a good day.

Steve

Onlne problems here

Hi:

The picture here is a map of the U.S. drawn up by James Fallows of The Atlantic magazine. I do not know if you can enlarge it, but he drew the map to shows states of equal population. Our Oregon is now known as Willamette, but encompasses the southern part of Washington and northern California. He gave other states names that reflected the area from which he drew up.

I had to get a new modem yesterday from the phone company because the old one kept kicking me off line all weekend.

The modem came with instructions but they do not seem to work. I checked other laptops in this household and found out under Tools, Internet Options and Connections, nothing shows up in the box and the NEVER CALL box is checked. I first tried it with Dial Broadband, but then my computer kept trying to call the modem and that did not work. So now Broadband Connection is the box under TOOLS/INTERNET OPTIONS/CONNECTION but the NEVER CALL box is checked. I seem to get online in this way but only for a short time only, then I am kicked off again.

I may have to call Tech Support at WVI (Willamette Valley Internet) to see what those guys say.

I hope your week goes well.

Steve

Sunday morning

Hello:

This picture is from Germany. I have a couple of friends on Facebook with the surname of Schwindt, but this time in Germany. I have many friends from Argentina with the last name of Schwindt. All of these years I thought the name Schwindt was unique to my immediate family in Oregon. I did not think many people had this name. I certainly was disabused of that idea over the past two months.

On the TV show Sunday Morning on CBS today we learned the microwave oven is 60 years old today. I cannot imagine a day not using a microwave. (a double negative makes it positive???).

Last night, I almost finished The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry. I will finish it this morning as it now a page-turner. I should have finished it last night but I was getting tired so I went to bed with about 75 pages left in the book.

I want to find a book on Winston Churchill that covers the years of World War II and beyond. William Manchester wrote two volumes of his three volume biography of Churchill but has been too sick to finish the the third volume of The Last Lion. His second volume of the biography ended as World War II started.

Stay dry today.

Steven

China pulls Avatar from theaters there

I heard today that the Chinese government has pulled the 2D version of Avatar from theaters there. Here is what an English paper said about the decision:

Avatar" is about a paraplegic ex-Marine sent to an Edenic planet inhabited by the Na'vi, a race of attenuated blue humanoids who live in mystical harmony with nature. His mission, along with his fellow yahoo mercenaries, is to drive the Na'vi out of their homes so a corrupt and brutal mining company can get at the minerals underneath.

The Marine, Jake Sully, infiltrates the Na'vi -- don't ask -- and finds mobility, mystical harmony with nature and Zoe Saldana. He becomes a Na'vi and helps his rather clueless new tribe drive the imperialists and corporate lackeys back to their own despoiled planet. An old story, but one that can't be told often enough.

The plot, however, made many suspicious that the Chinese government had darker motives in limiting distribution. The authorities feared, it is alleged, that the Chinese public might make invidious comparisons between "Avatar" and the Chinese government's brutal way of evicting people and demolishing their homes to make way for mines, dams or whatever it is the government is dead set on building.

The paper is right exactly. The government always moves people with no compensation to make way for big apartments and other buildings. The government in China has no connection to the people of China. Those old guys just want to get rich themselves on the backs of the Chinese peasants. I could go on a long rant about the nature of the Chinese government but I do not want to bore you with the long rant.

Steven

Weekend is here...

Hi:

The picture here is one of the most visited sites in Oregon. I have been there at least four times but never seen it like this, frozen up. Multnomah Falls in the winter.

I am reading The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry. I read all of his other books. He is an excellent writer in his own right.

I listened to the podcast today of the Kindle Chronicles. It is a Friday podcast about the Kindle. Amazon is now seeking different apps for the Kindle. I sent my email address to Kindle to be alerted when they want the app. I want folders on the Kindle but I don't know how to create them. I could do it in the file the Kindle creates when you connect to my computer.

Today and tomorrow will be reading days. I need to put some hours in my books. I have only seven books here to get through in the next two weeks.

I remind you again, if you have written a book I can put it on the Amazon Kindle page. Send it to me as an attachment and I will contact you to start a conversation about getting your book on the Kindle page.

Steven

Friday...finally

Hello:

The picture here is another actress from Avatar. You may remember her from Lost. She was a new character on Lost but then she was killed off after she got a DUII in Hawaii, where the show was filmed.

Amazon announced today that it will raise the amount it pays authors from 35% to 70%, starting June 30. Probably due to the upcoming release, on January 27, of the Apple Tablet. Amazon wants authors to publish books on the Kindle page.

If you have a book you wrote and do not know where to publish it, I started Steven Schwindt Publishing, a company that helps individuals publish on books on the Kindle. I have published 3 books on the Kindle so far.

It costs you nothing to publish on the Kindle page. My rates for transferring the books is very reasonable, free for the most part. I will publish your book for free, again to let me gain the experience of publishing on the Kindle page. It is learning curve for me. The third book was very easy compared to the problems I encountered with the first book. Write me if this interests you. schwindt68@hotmail.com

Amazon publishes books in the .azw format. This format can be read only on the Kindle ebook reader, not any other ebook reader. At CES, the Comuputer Electronic Show, in Las Vegas there were at least six new ebook readers. None can read the .azw format books.

There are 3 million Kindles out in the U.S. now. By this year's end, there will be 10 million. The Kindle has been the best selling item on the Amazon page for the past month.

People who have Kindles want Amazon to publish in the .epub format, a format that all ebook readers can download.

All of this sort of "inside baseball" of interest to me but not to any others.

I do hope you have a good weekend.

Steve

H now

Good morning:

My dad will come later this morning to pick his Kindle. I downloaded 40 books to it plus a few magazine articles. He will be happy to see what I put on his Kindle.

The picture here is the last of the watermelon carvings with a laser cutter.

Now I am contact with Ann-Karin Schwindt from Berlin Germany as well as two women from Argentina with the surname of Schwindt, Mercedes and Lolo. Genealogy is of no interest to me, but all of this contact with other Schwindts' from two different countries.

All of these relatives of mine found me from Facebook.

My dad is now talking that he wants me to go with him to Argentina to visit the Schwindt families there.

I have been trying to figure out the relation between me and Mercedes Schwindt, as an example. Her great-grandfather was Johannes Schwindt, brother to my grandfather, Joseph. My dad is first cousin with Mercedes grandfather. I am second cousin to her father, which makes me second cousin once-removed to Mercedes; or so I believe. Mercedes is only 32 now and cute as can be.

If I am wrong in my relationship tree let me know. Again, schwindt68@hotmail.com

Have a good upcoming weekend.

Steve

Hump Day again

Hello:

This picture is probably a time-delayed picture of lightening in the desert. A nice picture nevertheless.

Today I downloaded over 40 books to my dad's Kindle. I have it here overnight to put some additional stuff on it. I also added five articles from magazines to his Kindle. This should keep him in reading materials for the next year. He no longer uses his library card to get books from the library. Just the opposite for me.

I am reading Eating Animals by Safran Foer. He does not like factory farms nor does he like factory fishing. I saw this author on C-Span 2 (BookTV) last weekend and got the book from my library.

I finally finished Flash Forward last night. It ended in pure science fiction, as science fiction of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I am sure the TV will not end this way. The book's vision was 30 years in advance; the TV show is 8 months in advance.

Today I recorded the movie The Fountainhead. I do not want to read this large book so I will check out this old movie that showed on TCM (Turner Classic Movies). Besides, I know the author of this book is a libertarian, a political idea that does not appeal to me at all. Just as bad as conservatives in my mind.

Hope your week is going well.

Steve

try just one picture

I am trying an experiment.

I want to see if the paragraphs separate if there is just one picture here instead of the three I used in the last post.

We shall see if this works.

The picture here is a very friendly deer next to a fly fisherman.

Hope your week goes well.

Steven

Tuesday here

Hi again:

The pictures here are the carved watermelons. Amazing pictures....

I listened today to On Point with James Fallows and others from China. The talk was on Google and what that company is doing there. They discussed, among other things, the firewall in China. My experience with when I was there impacted my work on the computer. I could not access, for example, our bridge club in Eugene, called emeraldbridge.com. For some reason the firewall prevented me from getting access our bridge club in Eugene.

Now I hear the Chinese cannot access Facebook or Twitter.

The leadership of China is a bunch of old men, many of whom still remember Mao, one of the world's worst dictators. Chinese leaders believed they could maintain their corrupt power if the economy boomed. Corruption is large in China. I ordered a camera from New York. It stayed in the Chinese Customs Office for four weeks. When I called them they told me I could get it delivered if I paid another 1,000 rmb to them. I told that person to go to hell. I was not going to pay his bribe. Two days later the camera was delivered to my office.

I know I have suggested this book before but it is such a good book about China. Read China Road by Rob Gifford. This NPR reporter took a trip on the Silk Road from Shanghai to the western border of China. The bribes they had to pay on that trip.

I love the people of China and the food of China but not the government of China.

Take care.

Steven

Monday, Monday...

These pictures are from my friend Bill in Eugene. He sends some most interesting pictures. These were all cut with a laser cutter. The top one is a watermelon and the two bottom ones are egg shells.

I am near the end of Flash Forward, the 1999 book that is the basis of the TV show. Do you watch this show? It is not one now, but will probably come back after the Winter Olympics, which I do not plan to watch at all.

The difference between the book and TV show is that the book takes place mostly in CERN in Switzerland. The TV show takes place at FBI headquarters in Washington and LA. Only a few facts from the book make it into the TV show. A suicide, a website for people to write about their visions on it. In the book, also, the vision is 2030, a long time from now, whereas the TV show the vision takes place next April.

I do hope your week goes well.

Steve

Happy, happy and HAPPY...

Hello:

As you know I am so happy now. After three days of suffering with a virus on my computer that prevented me from opening many of the programs on my computer. It is amazing, however, that some thoughts come out of the blue. the correction came to my mind. Now my computer is virus-free.

Watch out for the Personal Security virus. It does not come in an email. It comes in a pop-up (even if you, like me, had the pop-ups turned off). It asks you if you want to continue to protect your computer. With a name like Personal Security, it tricks you into saying "yes."

The picture here another picture of the actress in Avatar.

My coffee fast has ended. A week without coffee. I never did that before.

Not nearly as bad as giving up chocolate for Lent. I did this twice. The first time I gave up chocolate for Lent, I was quite surprised how much I ate chocolate once I gave it up. After about four days without chocolate, my hands shaked as I reached for things. But I also discovered other desserts that were not chocolate. When I was working in Eugene, giving up chocolate for Lent I discovered marionberry ice cream at Prince Pucklers. It was like eating cold marionberries...it is so good.

Even though I lost my faith some years ago, I still use Lent as period of time. It is not 40 days, but 47 days...I discovered the first time I gave up chocolate. Those nuns lied to us when they told us in grade school that Lent last 40 days and 40 nights.

I have not read all of the papers from last Sunday so I will not get today's Oregonian. I will read it in a few days at the library.

Steve

Success!!!!!!

Hi:

I thought of a solution today to solve my computer problem: the personal security virus that was seriously affected my computer.

I was sitting with my computer early this morning trying to think how to get this virus off my computer. Nothing worked so far at that point. But then I thought, my icons appear for about 2 minutes before the virus takes over and eliminates them. So I re-started my computer and watched for the icons to appear. I saw the rkill icon so I hit it as my computer was in its opening process. I hit rkill at least 10 times to stop the operation of the virus.

Once that was finished I hit the Malwarebytes virus killer icon and did a deep scan to find the virus. The scan lasted 2 hours, 30 minutes and found 36 items affecting my computer. Malwarebytes told me to remove them so I did that, then restarted my computer. The virus is gone. You cannot believe how happy I am to be with a computer that works so well.

The picture is the main actress in Avatar. She is a former model now an actress.

She played the Navi lady interested in Scully. She is quite beautiful.

Nolan and I went to see Sherlock Holmes last night. It was a good movie and I certainly expect a sequel next year.

Today, from the Stayton library, I ordered The Seven Percent Solution, the book of a story of Sherlock using cocaine to come to his conclusions. It is a 1974 book that I did not read. Since that time I read all four of the Sherlock novels and all of Conan Doyle's short stories about Sherlock.

Again, I am so very happy now.

Steve

The Last Day of My Fast

Hi again:

This is the final day of my coffee fast. I was tempted mightily today about making coffee, but decided against it.

I spent the last three hours trying to get the personal security virus off my computer. I downloaded three different virus killers this morning. None worked because nothing will download to my desktop. If I download it to My Documents it does not work; I cannot open it. If I download it to my flash drive; I cannot open it.

The correction is a two-step process. One, use rkill to stop the virus from its operation. Once that ends, step two comes with the virus killer program. But I cannot get step one to work, to open to do its work. Apparently the virus prevents me from doing it.

I am at a loss how to fix my computer. If any reader of this blog has any suggestions, please do let me know. schwindt68@hotmail.com.

The picture here is one of Bill from Stayton Photography as Art series.

Back to computer work.

Steve

H here now...

Hi again:



I have a bad virus on my computer now, called Personal Security. I asked my friend Bill at NORPAC about it and he sent me an article on how to get it out. My desktop is empty.



Tonight, after dinner, I will reading. The last three nights I as watching 24, both the 4th and 5th season. I saw neither of them for TV.


My next book will be Flash Forward, the book the TV show is based on. I got a free audio book from Audible.com and it was the same book, but I find little time to listen to it. I have listened to about 1/10 of it.



Little news here, plus my computer.



Steve

2nd Hump Day of the Year

Hello again:

I am in the middle of a long week without coffee. This is the fifth day of my fast. It is indeed strange to eat a muffin the morning for breakfast and have with it cold water. I will not make my coffee until Saturday morning.

The picture here one from Avatar. I may go see it again to see what I missed from the first time I saw it. I read yesterday that some people who saw the movie are depressed from seeing
Pandora and realizing that we cannot have a society like that here, one that cares so deeply for their environment and all living things. Plus it would be so neat to be seven feet tall and have a tail, besides being green.

I am connecting with many other Schwindt family members in Argentina. Now one Albert Schwindt became a friend of mine on Facebook. He lives in Switzerland. I do believe they are the descendants of my grandfather's brothers, all of whom went to Argentina in the late 1880's. I am sharing the emails from them in Argentina with my Dad. He is so pleased to find out so many Schwindts in Argentina.

Stay dry this week.

Steve

U Afternoon here..

Hi:

The picture here is a wave that froze on Lake Michigan. It must be very cold there this year.

I finished season 4 of 24. Now it on to season 5. Season six waits for me at the library. Season 8 starts here soon, probably after the football season ends or some other time.

I need to find some time to finish my book. But both DVDs of 24 are due today. I don't know if I can renew season 5; I will take it to the library later this afternoon to see if I can renew it.

I have 11 other books here to read once I finish Vanished. I have about 50 pages to go and I will finish it today.

Not much other news here.

Steven

Monday evening

Hi again:

I am in the third day of a coffee fast. Last Friday night I went to bed at regular time but woke up at 2:30 am the next morning, wide awake. I decided I needed to get off coffee for a week. Let me tell you, it has been hard every morning. Plus I bought some muffins at Costco this morning, so not having coffee with a muffin tomorrow will be hard. But I will not have coffee again until Saturday morning.

I can tell I am getting rid of the caffeine out of my system. I should do this every couple of months, get that caffeine out of my system.

The picture here is another Lake Michigan iceberg, with the algae stripes.

I am watching the last seven or eight episodes of 24, the fourth season. I can watch it as I write this.

Hope you week does well.

Steven

Good morning

Hello:

This picture is an iceberg on Lake Michigan. The strips come when the iceberg turns over in the water and picks up algae which freezes on the ice. Bill from Eugene sent me an email with a few pictures of icebergs on Lake Michigan. I will post a few here in the next few days.

Yesterday was a 24 day. I watched the fourth season yesterday. I have not watched that season. I got seven hours finished.

I have the fifth season of 24 here and the sixth season waiting for me at the library. Each episode is 42 minutes long, meaning there are 18 minutes of commercials in it. I remember back to the days of my VCR. I taped every episode every week during the first three seasons. By the end of the season I had dozens of videotapes.

Assuming I get through these DVDs I will record the new season on my DVR.

Hope your week goes well.

Steven

Sunday morning

Good morning:

How are you on this Sunday morning?

The picture is from Avatar, with Scully trying to rope his banshee. I may go see this movie again as I want to see what I missed.

I am finishing up Vanished by Joseph Finder. I may have read this book before. I know I checked it out of the library soon after arriving back from China but I thought I did not have time to read it as I had so many books at that time. But now I realize I did read the entire book, yet I am just 50 pages from the end.

My next book will be The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry. I may have read this book earlier too, I just don't remember. I used to write reports on every book I wrote so I could check there to see if I read the book. I may have to start a list again of books I read so I don't attempt to re-read books.

If feels good reading fiction again. I have been reading non-fiction books for the past 3 months.

Time to go to Safeway to the Sunday Oregonian.

Steven

Split night here

Good morning:

I drank too much coffee yesterday afternoon so I was wide awake at 2:30 this morning. I went back to bed after an hour but did not sleep well. So, I am giving up coffee for a week. We shall see how this goes...

The picture here is a night-time picture of South and North Korea. The bottom of the picture you see the lights of South Korea. Above the line there are very few lights. No lights. This is from a book Nothing to Envy. I reserved this at the library yesterday as I was listening to the author on NPR.

There is little electricity in North Korea. Yet those people believe they live in the best country, even when they eat soup made of bark and sawdust.

Enjoy your second Saturday of 2010.

Steven

More on the game...

Hi again:

I should tell you more about the Harvard vs. Yale game from 1968. The title of the movie is Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. With 1:42 left in the game Yale was ahead by 16 points. At 0:46 seconds Harvard scores a touchdown and converts two points. An onside kick is successful because Yale had no on-side kick strategy. Harvard recovers the kick and scores a touchdown on the last play of the game, scoring a touchdown with no time left on the clock. Again Harvard scores two points to "beat" Yale 29-29.

The movie interviews many of the players in that game, including Tommy Lee Jones. All are older than me now but it is amazing how many Yale players tell the interviewer they "lost" the game.

The picture here is on the Navi in Avatar. Each is over seven feet tall with a tail. I am checking with Amazon later this evening to see if I can find the Navi for Dummies shown in the movie.

This is the rest of the story, or so it goes....

Steve

H here today

Hello:

The picture is from the Avatar series, showing the mountains in clouds. The CGI was so good in this movie.

Last night I watched Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, a movie based on a 1968 football game. 1968 was the year I graduated from high school, the year that changed a generation. Both teams were undefeated going in to this game. Harvard was an unexpected winner all season long. But Yale had Calvin Hill as a tailback.

Yale was still an all-male campus and all students had to wear coats and ties. Tommy Lee Jones played for Harvard that year. Doonesbury started that year at Yale. B.D. was a parody of the Yale quarterback.

Harvard fell behind early in the game and Harvard had a comeback for the ages.

The film is a documentary and quite a good show.

Hope you week is going well.

Steven

Hump day again

Hi again:

The picture here is no doubt recognize if you have seen Avatar. I watched it today in 3D. The graphics are amazing. It is almost like you can touch things in front of you. I have a series of Avatar pictures to post here, I got them from various websites.

I am going to check Amazon to see if they are selling the Navi language book. I have no desire to learn another language. It does sound easier to learn Navi rather than Klingon.

If you do go to see it, watch it in 3D. It is more expensive but worth it. We kept the 3D glasses given to us to watch the movie. Previews show the new Shrek movie and Alice in Wonderland will both be in 3D.

Also, I heard on NPR tonight that some TVs are coming out in 3D. Not much to watch for the first ones to buy it. ESPN will show the World Cup next summer in 3D.

Hope your week is going well.

Steven

got wet today...

Hi again:

I got wet today. I rode my bike to the library when it was not raining, but was raining hard when I decided to leave the library. So my pants are wet and as is my flannel shirt. (interesting dichotomy: when we refer to pants a person wears, it is always plural, but my flannel shirt is always singular--if you think this is hard to understand, try teaching Chinese students about these special rules about English.)

The picture here is from Bill's Photography as Art series. Shows some colorful houses on a cliff.

I picked up nine books from the library today. I don't know where I find the recommendations for some of the books I do reserve for myself. I told myself I was not going to reserve so many books but listening to stories both on TV and on NPR, it is too easy to find the book being talked about. With a regional library here it is so easy to get new books here.

Speaking of regional libraries has Eugene voted on for a regional library yet?

I also picked up 2 DVD sets of 24. I missed two years when I was in China, so I will watch Series 5 and Series 6 of 24 this week.

I found a recipe for crunchy french toast. I tried it. The recipe called for heavy cream and half and half, but I used my regular french toast recipe of 2 eggs and a cup of cold milk. I crunched up corn flakes and fried my french toast. It was good, but I need to get some white bread instead of 5 Seed bread I usually use.

Hope you have a good week.

Steven

We, wet and more wet here

Good morning:

It is wet here, raining all day for the past few days.

The picture here is an apparent reflection in water held in a person's hand.

I need to find some time to start reading my Kindle again. I have 49 pages on it now, mostly articles I move to it. I am not reading a daily newspaper anymore, instead checking out both the New York Times and The Oregonian websites for my news fix every day.

I was up at 3:30 am yesterday but today I woke up at 7:00 am. Coffee and the Internet checking take up too much time every morning. Still no time to check my Kindle.

I am almost finished with Googled: The End of the World as We Knew It. It is a good book. I like to read most books by The New Yorker authors. Ken Auletta is the author of this book.

Google has two themes: "do no evil "and "don't mess with the magic." It is an engineer-driven company but the best company to work for by most surveys.

As I write this I listen to Morning Edition on NPR but I go to the NPR website to add the stories to the play list on my computer instead of listening it on the radio. I hear only the stories I want to hear and I don't have to listen to sponsor links or local news interludes.

I head a story today on NPR about pre-diabetes. Nolan has diabetes, so I am going to test my blood later tonight to see how high my blood sugar is these days.

Have a great week in wet Oregon.

Steven

Early, very early Sunday morning

Good morning:

I am heading to the Shaw Breakfast later this morning. This is the best breakfast around, sausage gravy on a biscuit, eggs, hash browns and coffee.

The picture here is one from Bill's Photography as Art series. It is quite colorful this one is.

My Ducks lost the Rose Bowl. I did not watch the game. I recorded it on my DVR but deleted it without watching it once I found out the score. I did read every story in yesterday's Oregonian. In the Ducks case, I am sure they will be there next year. Wait until then...

I got up at 3:30 this morning wide awake. We shall see if I go back to bed later this morning. I am going to breakfast at 9:00 this morning.

Ready to start the new year?

Steven

1st Day with 364 days to follow...

Good morning:

The picture here shows a light streak, caused by something I don't know.

I welcomed in the New Year last night with a big glass of Johnny Walker Red over ice. I drink blended scotch over ice; I drink single malt scotch "neat", that is, with no ice.

It rained all day yesterday, preventing me from riding my bike to Safeway. It is not raining this morning but I don't know if Safeway is open here today.

I am recording the Rose Bowl today. This way I can watch it again if the Ducks destroy the Buckeyes, like I believe they will.

In 1995 I watched the Rose Parade live. I was never a fan of parades but I loved to see it live. I may watch a few minutes of the parade today to see how it appears on TV versus seeing it live.

I dreamed last night I was in high school at Regis again. But this time I had my Kindle and I was wondering if high school texts could be downloaded to the Kindle so I would not have to get the books there. The school was not starting and I was pressing on when to pay tuition and when classes start. Dreams, I have said before, are "fractured fairytales." (Remember where that statement came from????? Rocky and Bullwinkle.....)

Go Ducks.

Steven